Extraction of uranium from wet-process phosphoric acid

Abstract

A process for the extraction of uranium compounds from wet-process phosphoric acid includes lowering the iron concentration of the wet-process phosphoric acid and reducing the valency of any remaining ferric iron in the wet-process phosphoric acid to ferrous iron, and then extracting uranium compounds from the wet-process phosphoric acid. The process can include separating a side stream from a feed stream of wet-process phosphoric acid, wherein the side stream has a greater concentration of the uranium compounds than the feed stream by filtration. Extracting uranium compounds from the wet-process phosphoric acid can be by ion exchange process or by solvent extraction.

Description

FIELD OF INVENTION[0001]This invention generally relates to extraction of valuable minerals and more particularly to the extraction of uranium from wet-process phosphoric acid.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]There are a number of significant phosphate deposits from which is produced phosphate for chemical feed and fertilizers. These phosphate deposits can contain potentially economic quantities of uranium. For instance, phosphate rock is mined and processed in Florida (and other plants in the US) to produce a variety of high value agricultural products. The phosphate rock contains uranium in low quantities (for example, 100-200 ppm of uranium may be present in phosphate rock depending on the source of the phosphate rock). During the acid digestion stage of the wet-process phosphoric acid (WPA) process this uranium is solubilized into the phosphoric acid, which is further processed to manufacture the products of the plants.[0003]Phosphoric acid producers have previously recovered ur...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0029]In an alternative form, the invention may comprise a process for the extraction of uranium compounds from WPA, the process comprising lowering the iron content of the WPA, separating from WPA a side stream having a greater concentration of the uranium compounds than the stream of wet-process phosphoric acid, reducing the valency of any remaining iron in the side stream, and extracting uranium compounds from the side stream.

[0031]In an alternative form, the invention comprises a process for the extraction of uranium compounds from wet-process phosphoric acid, wherein the process may comprise separating from a stream of wet-process phosphoric acid, the side stream having a greater concentration of the uranium compounds than the stream of wet-process phosphoric acid, lowering the iron content of the side stream, reducing the valency of any remaining iron in the side stream, and extracting uranium compounds from the side stream.

Problems solved by technology

These phosphate deposits can contain potentially economic quantities of uranium.

All plants were closed down due to high operating costs and the long term depressed uranium market.

However, there is resistance to simply revert back to the historical processes for a number of reasons:

Historical high operating cost: The SX circuits operated in the past have had operating costs that were in the 3rd and 4th quartile of uranium producers, despite years of research and incremental operational improvements.

Operational difficulties: The SX circuits had numerous operational and maintainability issues that attributed to the high operating cost, but also led to downtime affecting production rates.

In particular the addition of metallic iron, which may be required for the processing of uranium, has become a more important issue due to increased iron levels in the ore, and subsequently in the WPA.

In the past, this waste has been co-disposed with the gypsum with limited regulatory issues; however, because of regulatory changes this co-disposal is no longer viable, and now the ability to economically dispose of any radioactive solid waste produced is uncertain.

It can however, be safely assumed that the disposal of radioactive solid waste will be an expensive and difficult exercise.

This instability leads to a project operating in the 3rd or 4th quartile of production being very high risk, as the WPA uranium production plants have been in the past.

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